Thanks for weighing in on the Reading Intervention conversation!! Fabulous to have so many points of view from teachers in such different areas... Just to clarify, I didn't mean to imply that my school is "program-only!" We know that teachers pull what a student needs to best suit the student's learning style, and we have been picking and choosing what to do with these students as interventions. All that being said, I like to have a couple of tricks for each area of need (phonemic awareness, decoding strategies, fluency, comprehension, etc.) Bonus points if it's easy enough for a volunteer or paraprofessional to understand, since I can't split myself into 22 parts - yet. Here are a few of the interventions suggested in emails, comments, and from cyberspace. :)

FCRR.org has been correlated to Common Core! If you haven't spent a few minutes exploring the free K-5 Student Center Activities at FCRR, you're missing out on some great resources. I know I've blogged about this before, but it's just too fabulous not to mention again. They've recently correlated the Student Activity Centers here. Now that they are correlated, it will be easier to use for remediation/enrichment in my classroom, and the activities are usually pretty easy for volunteers to understand. Now if I could just get my principal to increase my copy limit... ;)

Hello! I was chatting with my grade level today, and we had a question for y'all. First, let me give you a bit of background - here is a picture of my amazing teammates:

My lovely teammates (except for Sondra!)

That's me in the middle of the back row. Not too shabby for a day with no shower... :) (Long story!!) Don't we look like a group who collaborates, works hard, and helps each other? That's because we do!!!

Anywhoo... we wanted to know what y'all recommend for 2nd grade reading intervention programs. Currently, we have Great Leaps, but we have had mixed results. Some of our struggling kiddos have used GL since Kindergarten, and we're looking for another option that can be easily implemented. As a Literacy Specialist, I love, love, loved both Soar to Success and the Benchmark Education materials, but they really don't lend themselves to having a para-professional or volunteer for implementation. Side note: we won't have access to the shared Teaching Assistants we have after this year, so this needs to be easy for parent volunteers (or us, when we can't secure a volunteer!) My principal has said that money might be available if we can find something effective and research-based, so let's find something great. :)

Here are the questions: Do your 2nd grade teachers use a reading intervention program? How effective is it? Any advice? Thanks so much for your advice!!!! If you're sweet and leave some advice with your email address, I'll happily send out a "mystery item" from my TPT/TN stores. Intrigued? I think so!! Thanks in advance for your help!!!

I have been such a slack blogger lately. MIA. I know. It's weighed heavily on me this weekend, but I've been uber busy. I've been back in school since July 9, (I'm in year-round school!) and there are a couple of green beans in my bunch that are a bit challenging. In addition to the regular beginning-of-school-so-all-of-your-paperwork-is-due-at-some-arbitrary-yet-unachievable-deadline chaos, I'm pulling all of my positive behavior strategies out already!!

I'm working on a couple of projects, but I'm very excited about the progress I'm making with the next 2 sets of the Mystery Word of the Week. After I have these sets complete, there will be 40 weeks for teachers to use throughout the year. Eventually, I'll go back and package the sets together, but my family, friends, and students will come first. And my laundry will need folding... again. Some days I'm feeling this scattered:

Here are a few more Amazing Resources!! If you know of others, please share with the rest of us... :)

Your Next Read - Super cool way to find new books. Type in a title or type of book (or click on the images on the front page) and get a web of suggested titles. They provide the book blurb from Amazon, too, so you can learn more about it. I have a few students who I'll be using this with to help them "widen" their book interests! Here is a web it created for my fav Elephant and Piggie book. :)

My Music Wand arrived in the mail yesterday!!! I am in love. It is such a pleasing soft sound, and it gets the attention of my rambunctious spirited group this year. I'm adding it to my arsenal of attention getters. Here's a quick run-down of my favorites:

Class? Yes! - This is my favorite!! I've been with my new class for 4 days, and they were experts in this by the end of the first day... Here's a link to a post with my favorite Whole Brain Teaching video - it will change the way you teach. :) Yes, for the better!!

Music Wand - it's awesome! Here's the one I got... <3 it!! (No, they didn't pay me for this! I just like it!)

If You Can Hear My Voice... - Love it! Here are a few of the ones I use...

If you can hear my voice, clap once. If you can hear my voice, clap twice. (repeat until everyone is "with the program."

If you can hear my voice, hands on hips. If you can hear my voice, hands on head. (etc.)

You get the general idea...

Windchimes - The only standby... my chimes were left by the previous teacher. They are super cute ceramic fish (very beachy!) and they make a lovely sound. I have them hanging under the flag where we can all reach them, but not by accident. I do occasionally send students over to ring the chimes for me, which always gets the attention of the other kiddos.

My hubby says I am obsessed. My teaching buddy, Casey, calls me an addict. Me? I accept myself for who I am... and I love, love, love me some Vistaprint. Maybe it's because classroom supplies are a fun perk of the job. Maybe it's because I'm so brokecheap frugal. Possibly, it's just that I like things that are personalized. And cheap. And make my classroom look nice. Let's face it - I spend a lot more than 40 hours a week in that room, and it helps if I have pretty things to use while I'm working. Here are some items I bought to use in my classroom:
I created the blank business cards to use for flash cards, labels for our classroom library, name tags, you name it. Best of all - 250 in the box. To make blank business cards, select the design you like, and simply remove the sample text. You know, name/address/phone number/etc. Too cute!!

The subway art on the note cards is from eighteen25. Isn't it fabulous? {I uploaded the image earlier this year on another product, so I didn't have to pay the $4.95 upload fee this time. I did pay it last time, though!}

Flyers - front side (in color!)

Flyers - back side (in black and white)

The flyers (set of 25) are standard paper size. We are experiencing extreme limitations this year on our copies and color printing, so I figured this was the way to go. I copied and posted the text from some letters I usually run off for parents for Open House. I think I'm going to add this to their homework folder - we'll see. :)

Rack cards - front side (in color!)

Rack Cards - back side

I saw this idea while blog stalking, but I can't remember where! If you can remember where you saw it, please let me know!! I'd like to give credit for this fabulous idea. The idea is from Katie at Dirty Hands and Lesson Plans!!! She has lots of cute ideas for Vistaprint here. I ordered Rack Cards (set of 50) for kiddos to use for reading homework on the weeks when we don't really have much in the way of homework. It's just a little extra way to keep them reading during the week!!

Self-inking Stamp - Love it!

Blank Small Business Card Magnets - set of 25

I like to write each kiddo's name on one of these magnets. We use them throughout the year for Venn Diagrams and Bar Graphs on the magnetic board as students come in as a part of their morning work. Last year, I gathered an assortment of colorful Sharpies and let them decorate their magnet - supercute!!

I know. I know. I know. It's a lot. My hubby tells me it's too much. Actually, I got all of these items shipped for $11.91. You're asking yourself, "How can this be? Does she get a special discount? Maybe a relative works at the company." Nah. Vistaprint barely knows I exist, most likely. They do send me tons of emails with good promos. Just look through the emails, till you find one with lots of the products you want for free (just pay shipping), and click on only that email. If you try to order deals from 2 different emails, it knocks all of your items back to full price, and who wants to pay full price?! Interested in getting the deals? Visit their website here, or you can click my referral link here for free business cards. Another tip: make sure you sign up with an email address that you don't mind getting mail from 3-4 times per week.

Tomorrow, July 4th is my one year bloggiversary, one year since my first post. (printables from Fountas and Pinnell - still an incredibly popular post!) A year, already?!? O-mi-gosh! I started this blog hoping that it would help me have an online place to organize resources. Over the past year, this little blog has benefited me tremendously, in ways I did not anticipate:

My hubby loves that I have a place to rant pleasantly discuss the ins and outs of classroom teaching;

I've made so many new bloggy buddies {I'm hoping to meet more of you in person at meet-ups!};

I've become more technologically savvy capable of following the directions I continually Google about how to disable/enable different blog features;

I took the plunge and opened my online stores, helping bring a bit of needed income into our home;

I feel like I'm contributing to the self-paced professional development of others, by sharing some of my Literacy resources. {This is what I miss most from Literacy Coaching!} Really, shouldn't we be getting continuing ed credits?!?

I wanted to thank all of you, who have been reading all year or who found me today, for allowing me to be a part of your life. You are all truly appreciated - if y'all weren't sharing all those great resources, I wouldn't have had time to be a wife, a mom, *and* a teacher!

If you have a blog, please link it up on my "Blogs I Love" page! I'd love the opportunity to share the bloggy love by helping others find your amazing resources. :) {The fact that it will help me stay organized is just a bonus!!}

To thank you all, I've called on some a-maz-ing blogging ladies who generously agreed to help me with A Bloggiversary Giveaway!

{I even made a button, using The 3AM Teacher's border - so cute!!} Check out the blogs and stores below to learn more about their amazing resources, then use Rafflecopter to enter to win a total of 37 prizes! By the way, make sure you actually follow the bloggity blogs - I teach, so you know I'll check behind you to make sure you followed the directions... Also, they are all full of fabulous ideas. May the odds be ever in your favor! :)

Disclosure: This blog is written and edited by Jen Sykes. For questions about this blog, please email hellomrssykes at gmail dot com. This blog accepts product samples for review. All opinions, errors, and beliefs are mine. Views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers’ own. Affiliate links are used to help support this website. Thanks for being amazing today.

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